


Norwegian Wood

by suecsit



Category: Cobra Kai, The Beatles
Genre: Beatles song catalog, M/M, norwegian wood song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:35:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26049619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suecsit/pseuds/suecsit
Summary: Demetri ruminates over his changing relationship with his best friend and his inability to do anything but watch. This takes place at the party during Season 1, Episode 9, "Different but Same."
Relationships: Demetri & Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz, demetri/eli
Comments: 11
Kudos: 66





	Norwegian Wood

**Author's Note:**

> The title is a song by the Beatles called "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" off of their album Rubber Soul. This story does not take place in Norway but in California. 
> 
> It's also the title of a book by Haruki Murakami, who was inspired by the same Beatles song.
> 
> Both the song and Murakami book deal with missed/failed connections.

Demetri watched Eli kiss Moon, both of them sitting close to the bonfire. In the darkness you couldn’t see that anything was wrong with his best friend’s face, even when the flames lit his profile. Of course, Demetri stopped seeing anything wrong a long time ago. It was taking everyone else a while to catch up. 

When Demetri and Eli were kids, Demetri told Eli that he was a Necromancer who could heal scars and that he just hadn’t grown into his full powers yet. Eli actually believed him at first.

It worked out anyway. Funny how the cleft lip healed itself, not once but twice. Once when the plastic surgeon operated on him as a child, second when that madman Johnny Lawrence called  
Eli “Hawk.” Only Eli would be lucky enough to be healed twice.

Demetri, on the other hand, was, and probably always would be, Sensei Lawrence’s “princess.” The man made sure that that’s how he would be remembered right before Demetri quit. “Let that be a lesson to all of you,” he had proclaimed as Demetri lay on the dojo floor, the wind knocked out of him. It was the first time Eli hadn’t so much as moved a muscle to help him.

Still, he wasn’t sure he wanted to avoid karate as much as he first claimed. It was hard to ignore how much it had changed both Miguel and Eli’s lives for the better. Without anyone else knowing, Demetri had Googled some martial arts groups in the Valley, hoping to find one that didn’t involve any actual physical combat. 

So far no luck. 

He rubbed his shoulder at the memory of Sensei Lawrence’s last karate practice, feeling the ghost of a strain in his muscles. Demetri then plunged his hand into the ice-cold water of the party cooler, finding a Mr. Pibb and pulling the tab back so far the soda splashed on the hem of his t-shirt. He guzzled it too quickly and burped, earning a scowl from Miguel who was scowling at everybody right now. Something was wrong tonight, only Demetri couldn’t narrow it down to one thing. Maybe it was just their lame attempt to beat Yasmine to the lake, but he thought there was more going on.

After he poured soda into his red cup, he looked up and saw that Eli was now sitting alone, nursing a beer. No soda for him. Rumor was that Sensei Lawrence drank all day, and so Demetri figured it was only a matter of time before the great master and all of his peons ended up at an AA meeting together. 

For a moment Demetri just watched his best friend there…watched his features animate before the rising fire. Then his eyes turned back to the flames. Sparks flew as some guy from Cobra Kai kept throwing more wood on the pile. Demetri shook his head in disbelief at the lack of regard for safety. 

The flames somehow reminded him of Eli’s hair before he got the cut. The burnt amber hair that Eli had started to let grow long last summer was now spiked into a million needles of blue. It wasn’t that different from the feathers of bluebirds that he saw when his family went to Lake Tahoe a few years back. 

Weird how Demetri still loved listening to Eli’s tales of karate practice, though, despite the unpleasantness of his friend’s transformation. Tales of how Johnny ordered Aisha to “unflinch this group” after a few of the guys trembled when the great Sensei walked by. Stories of how no one recognized Eli when he first walked into the dojo that day with his new appearance. A large part of him hated the changes, but there was a small part of him, one he tried to deny late at night by hiding his face in the pillow, that was mesmerized by it.

Now overcaffeinated and hyped on too much sugar, he wanted to run his hand over the spikes on Eli’s head, see if they were viscous or hard, like cement. Instead he sat next to him on the log, letting his leg brush against his best friend’s, like it always had. As he got older, however, those moments when it happened felt longer and longer, like a phantom tickle that remained long after Eli disappeared. Demetri craved them now, and he didn’t know what to think about that. 

Maybe beer was a good idea after all. 

He cleared his throat, suddenly nervous at the closeness. “I don’t get it,” Demetri said. “You shave your head, get a tattoo, and suddenly like that everything changes?”

“All right, let me let you in on a little secret,” Hawk said, leaning closer. Demetri could smell cheap beer on his breath and feel the warmth of his friend’s jacket rub comfortingly against his shoulder. 

The fire continued to burn with more height, letting off sparks that fell just at their feet. Demetri recoiled just a little and, without meaning it, moved even closer to Eli. 

“It’s not just a haircut or a back tattoo. It’s a way of life, man.” He felt a thump on his back and Eli stared at him with complete seriousness, leaning in as if he were sharing the secrets of the universe. 

“You gotta just….feel the energy and live in the moment.” Hawk’s arm tightened around Demetri’s shoulders, and for a moment everything felt safe and warm.

It lasted only a few seconds. Then his friend was gone again, the blue hair still perfectly straight despite heavy smoke. Next to an angry, intoxicated Miguel and a confused and miserable Demetri, Hawk was the happy one now. He didn’t need a surgical mask to hide his face anymore. His voice had deepened, and girls were captivated by it. This bird had flown with Demetri still building the nest.

He slowly shook his head as if coming out of a trance. “That is the most McConaughey thing I’ve ever heard,” he muttered, laughing a little at himself for momentarily casting his binary brother as wise guru of them all. 

Demetri turned and saw Yasmine standing alone. “Live the moment,” he said to himself, and got up to speak to her. That’s what normal guys did, of course. Flirt with pretty blondes. They didn’t wait on a log for their best friend to lean close.

If he could figure out how to find Yasmine’s blonde hair and long legs compelling, he just might stand a chance at forgetting Eli for a bit. Yasmine was the way out. He knew it.

“I saw on your Facebook it’s your birthday,” he called out. Wondering why she didn’t respond, Demetri moved close to her and tried again. “Happy Birthday!” he said, using his hand as a megaphone.

Yasmine turned only partway, her scowl evident and her arms crossed. Her glance sideways made Demetri feel like something stuck under the girl’s shoe. “Sorry, I don’t normally converse with the opposite sex. Well, except for my mom. Even then it’s a bit intimidating.”

Yasmine turned completely now, her eyes widening in disgust.

“My move is to just usually . . . watch from a distance. Not in a creepy stalker way. Consider me more of a, an admirer from afar.”

“Oh my God,” Yasmine muttered just before walking away. 

Demetri was then left with his last gulp of Mr. Pibb and his view of Hawk on the other side of the fire. He threw his red cup in the sand, frustrated with himself. He should’ve at least watched Yasmine walk away, like any guy would. 

A few things seemed to happen all at once then. “No mercy, bitch!” he heard Aisha yell. Then suddenly Hawk was laughing at something, a deep laugh that Demetri wished was reserved only for him. And Miguel was helping a girl up off the ground and everything was chaos. “My dad was right about Cobra Kai,” someone shouted. 

Demetri wanted to find Eli and ask him what had happened, but he hung back instead, watching the fire. Funny how easy it was to say nothing and watch everything burn.


End file.
